


Lights Out

by DinerGuy, truthtakestime



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adventure, Barry is Pudding, Gen, God bless Leonard Snart, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, dubious scientific inventions, meta of the week, team shenanigans, there is whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 23:18:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9040571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DinerGuy/pseuds/DinerGuy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthtakestime/pseuds/truthtakestime
Summary: "So we know what she does; the problem is figuring out how to stop her," Caitlin said.Snart snorted. “Oh that’s easy. I’ll just shoot her."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frankie_mcstein](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankie_mcstein/gifts).



_7:30pm, Tuesday…_

“You’re awfully pretty.” 

Barry was pretty sure that he never wanted to wake up to those particular words ever again. For one thing, he wasn’t _pretty_. Manly, attractive, and debonaire maybe, but not pretty. And all that aside, he wasn’t super thrilled about waking up to that phrase _while kidnapped_. That was certainly less than ideal.

Speaking of the whole kidnapping thing, the culprit was currently crouched next to him, wearing a smile that he’d rate somewhere between “creepy” and “horror movie,” and still talking. “You’re really pretty,” she repeated as she stared at him. “And you look nice. I bet that everyone likes you. Everyone likes pudding, too. Oh! I get it; you’re Pudding now! Or maybe you’ve always been Pudding, is that it?” She smiled, her blue eyes twinkling unnervingly, and twirled one of her brown locks around her finger as she continued to watch him.

Barry blinked. “Pudding?” he asked slowly. He was having a little trouble focusing at the moment; his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, as if he had just woken up from a restless night’s sleep. But the real problem came when he tried to rub his temple to massage away the ache clouding his thoughts. He suddenly discovered that his hand did not want to obey the command. And then suddenly he realized both of his hands were firmly secured to the chair on which he was currently sitting.

The fog was starting to clear from his mind, as he was now almost fully awake, and as soon as he realized he was tied up by whoever this woman was, he started to phase out of his bonds to take a little more control over the situation.

Or rather, he tried to. For some reason, he wasn’t able to get any traction, which really concerned him. That shouldn’t be happening.

The woman must have noticed the look on his face, because she giggled and shook her finger at him. “Ah ah ah. That’s not going to work, honey.”

For some reason, he wasn’t sure if he should be more concerned she was calling him ‘honey’ or that he couldn’t seem to escape whatever she’d used to tie him up.

She hadn’t stopped grinning once, which was very disconcerting. “You really shouldn’t frown so hard. Mum always said don’t make funny faces or you might get stuck like that. I bet you want to know what I did, right?” She looked extremely pleased with herself. “I used those silly cuff things you were trying to put on me on you. I mean, I guess you didn’t want me to do anything to you, which actually kind of hurts my feelings that you trust me so little. But then I figured that since you run _so fast_ , that you would maybe run away from me, and I couldn’t have that happen, so I put two and two together - well, actually, I just put them on you and now we can be best friends!”

‘Uh huh,” Barry replied slowly.

“You still don’t look convinced,” she pouted.

He shrugged a shoulder. “Well, you know, it’s kind of hard to start a friendship on the right foot when the other person has you tied to a chair.”

“Oh,” she giggled, “but if I didn’t, you wouldn’t stay and play with me. And I have great plans for you, Pudding. We’re going to have so much fun together.”

“Yeah, you know, for some reason I don’t think our definition of ‘fun’ is exactly the same,” Barry said, tugging at the ropes that held his hands to the chair. He had hoped he could somehow unsnap the cuffs from his wrists behind his back, but his captor had apparently thought of that and had tied his hands to each of the far slats on the chair. His right hand was held at his right side and his left at his left, leaving him no room to try to finagle the cuffs off. And come to think of it, both of his feet were also tied to the legs of the chair.

The Bedtime Bandit was nothing if not thorough.

* * *

_Two hours earlier..._

“I’ve got it! We’ll call her Nap,” Harry announced, clapping his hands together and looking smugly around the room.

There was a moment of silence, and then Cisco coughed. “That’s a terrible name.”

“Oh?” the older scientist arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “I don’t hear any other suggestions. What would you all suggest?”

“Slumber?” Caitlin suggested hesitantly, shrugging her shoulders as if even she wasn’t convinced of the validity of her suggestion. “It… sounds more feminine than ‘Nap,’” she defended when the others all looked her way.

“I don’t know; it doesn’t really scream ‘villain’ to me,” Cisco said apologetically. However, he didn’t immediately have another suggestion either.

“We could call her Sandman,” Barry spoke up, grinning at his idea but then faltering as he took in the others’ expressions. “You know, since she puts people to sleep…”

Caitlin crossed her arms. “First of all, she’s a woman. Calling her ‘Sandman’ just won’t work.”

“...Sandwoman?” Barry winced even as the name came out of his mouth.

“Okay, you and I are going to have a nice little chat about feminism later,” she sighed, shaking her head.

Before that line of conversation could turn into a thing, Harry interrupted. “And you know, I could have just sworn that Sandman was already taken. Wasn’t he a, ah, a Colonel America villain somewhere along the line?”

Cisco was on his feet so fast he could have rivaled Barry. “Sandman was a Spiderman villain,” he argued, passion bleeding through his tone. “And for the last time, dude, it’s _Captain_ America!”

“No, it’s not,” Harry said patiently. “But DC comics are pretty different on your Earth, huh?”

Cisco buried his face in his hands. “This can’t be happening to me.”

At this point, Joe stood from where he had been patiently watching from a stool near the back of the room. “Guys, I don’t care what you call her. You can call her whatever you want; honestly, I really don’t care. All I want is for someone to stop this woman as soon as possible.” He looked around the room. “The last thing we need is some Bedtime Bandit taking over the city.”

“That’s it!” Cisco looked up suddenly and pointed a finger at Joe. His expression was an odd combination of offended that he hadn’t gotten to name their latest meta and proud that Joe had done such a good job. “Bedtime Bandit! Props, dude.”

Joe raised an eyebrow. “You missed everything else that I just said, didn’t you?”

“No. No!” Cisco emphatically shook his head. “No, I totally got it. Stop her. Got it.” He looked over at Caitlin. “Right. We just, uh, need to figure out how to do that.”

Before she could respond to his prompting, alarms began to echo around the room, drawing everyone’s attention to the row of computer monitors on the table. Caitlin spun her chair and rolled it over to the closest keyboard, rapidly typing even as the alarms continued to sound. “My facial recognition search got a hit. She’s just walked into a jewelry store near Jitters,” she announced, leaning in to study the computer screen in front of her.

In a flash, Barry had donned his suit and was out the door, leaving only a blast of air to tell the others he had gone.

“Barry!” Caitlin’s voice came through the radio in his ear. “We don’t even know how to stop her yet!”

“Well then, let’s figure it out,” he shot back. “This might be our only chance to stop her before she hurts someone.” He was already halfway to his destination, and in what seemed like no time at all, he pulled up outside of the business where Caitlin’s program had indicated the Bedtime Bandit was currently located. The door was unlocked -- never a good sign -- but there didn’t seem to be any sort of commotion inside. “Guys, I think we might have missed her. The place looks deserted.”

“According to this, she’s still there,” Caitlin replied slowly, and Barry could imagine her brow furrowing as she double-checked the information on her computer.

Then Cisco’s voice cut in. “She does put everyone to sleep, Barry. Maybe she’s busy cleaning them out while they’re all snoozing?”

“You should check it out anyways,” Harry advised. “Just be careful about it. The last thing we need is you turning into some kind of sleep-running mess.”

“I’d like to think I can outrun someone called the Bedtime Bandit,” Barry scoffed under his breath. But Harry’s advice was not horrible, and so he took a deep breath and pushed the door open the rest of the way.

It was oddly quiet inside the jewelry store, a noticeable shift from the alarms in the lab and the roaring traffic he’d had to avoid on the way there. The lights were out except for those inside the display cases, most of which were empty. A couple of security guards were snoring gently behind the counters. Barry was about to move on in his search of the store’s interior, but then something caught his attention, and he gave the guards a second look.

“Snart?” he exclaimed aloud.

“What?” several voices exclaimed in unison in his earpiece.

“Barry, did you just say ‘Snart’?” Cisco asked. “As in _Leonard_ Snart? As in Captain Cold?”

Caitlin sounded as confused as Barry felt, which was only slightly more than Cisco seemed to be. “What’s he doing there?”

Before he could reply, there was a sudden noise from behind him, and he spun to see the Bandit standing in the doorway to the stockroom at the back of the main showroom. Her baggy, patchwork pants and striped shirt looked almost like pajamas, and Barry had to admit that Joe had done an apt job of naming her. The Bandit was regarding him with a look he couldn’t quite read, and then an unnerving smile unfolded across her face.

“Well hello there,” she greeted him. “You must be the Flash. I have been waiting positively _forever_ to get to meet you, you know.”

Barry frowned. She had said that with a little too much enthusiasm for his comfort. “I’m sorry, and you are?”

“ _Enchanted_ ,” she responded with a dreamy sigh, which was possibly the most useless answer that Barry had ever heard.

“‘Enchanted,’ huh? That’s an interesting name.”

She giggled. “Oh, you’re _funny_! I like you,” she declared.

“What is _with_ this girl?” Cisco’s voice came through Barry’s ear.

Barry reached in his pocket for the inhibiting cuffs he had brought with him from S.T.A.R. Labs. He wasn’t sure yet how she had managed to put everyone to sleep, but there would be time to figure that out _after_ he’d stopped her. For now, his main concern was making sure that he didn’t fall to her powers. Although it would be interesting to see if her spell or whatever it was affected his speed at all.

“You know, you don’t have to do all this,” he pointed out. While she may have been a thief, the Bedtime Bandit hadn’t actually hurt anyone yet; in his book, that sounded like she had hope for rehabilitation. It was worth a shot to bring her in quietly, and it would definitely be a welcome break after all of the superpowered battles he’d had to fight over the past months. “I can help you, but you’ve got to stop stealing stuff. Racking up felonies is going to make this all a lot more difficult for you.”

Again with the disturbing giggling. “Oh, silly, but this is _exactly_ what I want. How else was I going to get your attention?”

Why was it that all the _crazy_ ones decided to have their weird, creepy crushes on him? It was kind of ridiculous. “Okay, listen up, Enchanted -- ”

But that was as far as he got. The Bedtime Bandit reached behind her back and produced a large device that looked suspiciously like Snart’s gun. Barry barely had time to realize that was _exactly_ what it was before there was a blast from its muzzle and he was suddenly _very_ cold. And then, for a while, he didn’t feel anything at all.

* * *

When Cisco had suggested coming along to the crime scene, it had made perfect sense. After all, they were going to need someone who could analyze the metahuman data and with Barry suddenly missing in action, it left their options rather limited. But now, even past his panic and worry for Barry, Joe was starting to feel regret over agreeing to Cisco’s idea.

“Oh, what does this button do?”

“Don’t touch that!” Joe swatted his passenger’s hand away, just managing to keep his eyes on the road. “For the last time, there is no ejector seat button in this vehicle. Though I’m starting to wish that there was…”

He could feel Cisco’s frown boring into the side of his head. “That’s unacceptable,” Cisco said seriously. “I can build you one. Do you want me to build me one? I think that every self-respecting hero support team member needs to have an ejector seat. What if they have a last-ditch plan to save the day that involves crashing their car? Just because they’re _willing_ to sacrifice their life for the hero doesn’t mean that they should _have_ to!”

“No!” Joe took a deep breath and tried to relax. After all, Cisco was only babbling because he was worried about Barry and trying not to be. It wasn’t his fault that his coping methods were irritating. “I don’t need an ejector seat, Cisco.”

“Okay.” The young man was quiet for a moment. Suddenly, he perked up. “A remote self-destruct?”

“Cisco!”

Thankfully, they were just pulling up to the curb outside of the jewelry store, and Joe breathed a sigh of relief as Cisco’s attention was distracted from the current topic of conversation. Before the vehicle was even in park, Cisco was already flinging open the door and heading for the store’s entrance.

“Cisco! Wait up!” Joe hurriedly turned off the ignition and followed behind him as he stepped into the store. No other officers had made it to the store yet, which made Joe realize just how quickly events had transpired. In fact, the two security guards on the ground were just starting to wake up from whatever it was the Bedtime Bandit had done to them.

“It really is you!” Cisco exclaimed, grinning down at the taller of the two guards, who Joe recognized immediately as the infamous Captain Cold.

Snart glared up at them sullenly. “Oh, fantastic, as if there weren’t enough ‘old friends’ after me today,” he groaned.

Crossing his arms, Joe raised an eyebrow at the man. “Mind elaborating on that a little bit?”

“Not here,” Snart shook his head, shooting a look over at the other guard who was just starting to stir, before standing up and clearing his throat. “Can we talk somewhere more… private?”

Joe shrugged. “I guess so. In fact, why don’t we all take a ride in my car? We can go down to the station, where you can tell us all about what happened here. And maybe you can tell us how to stop this woman.”

“Nuh uh. Nothing doing, Detective.” Now it was Snart’s turn to cross his arms. “I don’t go to police stations. They tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Uh, or you could just help us find this Bedtime Bandit,” Cisco suggested, grinning in satisfaction at his suggestion.

“You mean Vicki? You’re better off not looking for her.” Snart rolled his eyes. “That chick is insane.”

Cisco blinked. “Wait, you know her?”

“It’s a long story. We dated once. Briefly,” Snart clarified. “It was a thing.”

“So what happened?” Cisco prompted, looking much too interested for Joe’s liking.

“What happened was I realized that she was insane. And she sniped a job. I mean really, who does that?” He shook his head, looking properly offended at the memory.

Cisco started to laugh, then caught the looks that both of the other men were giving him and trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. “So, uh… what if we were looking for her?” he hedged.

“This woman took Barry,” Joe said firmly, leveling a look at Snart. “So yes, we are looking for her. And _you_ are going to help us.”

“Oh?” Snart looked extremely uninterested in the proposition. “And what’s in it for me?”

Joe flashed him a dark grin. “How about I don’t throw your sorry behind back in supermax for the next one hundred lifetimes?”

“Well that’s certainly an offer I can’t refuse, now isn’t it?” Then the sound of sirens wailed from down the street, and he smirked. “Better get going though; don’t want your colleagues to ask too many questions.”

Cisco glanced at Joe and then over at the second security guard. “How do we…?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Joe waved him off. “You two just go out to the car. I’ll join you in a minute.”

As soon as Snart and Cisco had exited the store, Joe strode over to where the security guard was slowly sitting up and dropped to his knees beside the man. “Sir? Sir, are you okay?”

“Wha… What happened?” The man looked thoroughly confused.

Joe put on his most concerned police officer face. “I’m Detective Joe West. Do you remember what happened?”

“I… uh, there was a robbery. A metahuman…” the man said, then he suddenly gasped. “Where’s the other guard? Is he okay?”

“What other guard?” Joe asked. “It was just you on shift, remember? And from what I hear, you did a fine job. The woman came inside, and you got everyone else to safety before she could hurt them. You’re a hero, man.”

“I am?”

Joe patted the man’s shoulder. “Here, lie back; the ambulance will be here soon. You’ll be just fine once they get you taken care of.” He sighed internally. He was going to have to make sure Caitlin wiped the security tapes for the store. And since when had he started consorting with criminals anyway? This whole working with S.T.A.R. Labs thing was starting to get to him…

Judging from the looks on Caitlin’s and Harry’s faces when Joe and Cisco finally arrived back at the lab with Snart, their teammates were having similar thoughts.

“What is he doing here?” Caitlin blurted out as soon as Snart stepped into the room.

“Apparently we’re partners now,” Snart deadpanned. “Yippie.”

Caitlin looked to Joe and Cisco for confirmation. “Really?”

“Sure,” Cisco shrugged. “I mean, he was there when the whole thing went down, and he does know our meta _quite_ well,” he added with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Snart held up a hand. “Why don’t we just skip the history lesson and get on with this whole thing? The sooner we catch her, the sooner I can leave.”

Taking that as her cue, Caitlin turned to the computer and entered a series of commands. A picture of the Bedtime Bandit popped up on the screen. “So I ran her picture through the system and got an ID on her: Vicki Noches. Several small time theft charges before the particle accelerator exploded, and then she seemed to drop off the map. Until now, of course.”

“Anything to explain why she decided running off with Barry was a good idea?” Joe wanted to know.

Snart laughed at that. “Because she’s crazy?”

“Not particularly,” Caitlin replied. “But I did find something interesting.” She pulled up a video file that appeared to have come from the jewelry store’s surveillance camera.

The footage showed the Bandit strolling into the store, then she seemed to wave her hands in the air, at which the occupants of the building all swayed on their feet before slowly dropping to the floor. The Bandit then casually made her way to the display cases and began emptying them of their contents.

Cisco squinted at the images. “Did she just… put them all to sleep?”

“What was that? Some kind of hypnosis?” Joe asked.

“I didn’t get hypnotized,” Snart objected. When the others looked over as if expecting him to elaborate, he sighed. “It felt more like someone had suddenly zapped all of my energy. Weirdest thing ever.”

“Okay, so she… steals people’s energy? That would make sense as to why her victims all fall asleep so suddenly,” Caitlin mused aloud.

Snart nodded slowly at that. “You know, Vicki did say something when she first walked into the store earlier. The other guard pulled his gun on her, and she just giggled and said… something about not being able to die in a dream.”

“Do you think she’s in a perpetual dream state of sorts?” Caitlin exclaimed excitedly. “It would make sense, actually. She steals other people’s energy so she can keep going without having to sleep herself.”

Cisco was grinning at that. “Ooohhh, just like the Wraith on Stargate? So cool, man.”

“I’m more concerned with how we find her at this point,” Joe said, looking to Caitlin. “Anything in that system of yours to tell us where she might be hiding out?”

She shrugged apologetically. “I’m trying, but there’s not much to go on.”

Joe started to say something, but was interrupted by his phone ringing. He glanced at it, then looked back at the others. “I need to take this; excuse me for a minute.” He headed for the hall outside, putting his phone to his ear as he went.

“So we know what she does,” Caitlin thought aloud. “The problem is figuring out how to stop her.” She put her hands on the desktop and leaned over to study the computer screen. The security footage was still running on a loop, playing the scene of the robbery, and she chewed her lip in thought as she watched it. “There’s got to be some way…”

Snart snorted. “Oh that’s easy. I’ll just shoot her,” he offered, pointing the cold gun at the ceiling and powering it up.

“No!” Caitlin and Cisco exclaimed in tandem, their faces mirroring the horror in their voices.

Snart just quirked an eyebrow and smirked at the duo.

“I-- I thought you said you had feelings for this girl,” Caitlin continued quickly, almost tripping over her words as she spoke.

“Yeah, once,” the man replied with a shrug. “Now she’s my ex. And I was glad to be rid of her,” he added.

Caitlin frowned. “I thought you said she dumped you.”

“Yeah, right before she took off in my car, and about three years before she stole my haul this morning. I think it’s safe to say the feeling is mutual now.”

Cisco jumped, nearly falling from his chair, as Caitlin nudged him. “Uh... Well, uh, we, uh, we don’t even know if shooting her would work! I mean, would the cold even affect her in the dream state she’s in? It might actually not give off the right temperature to really do anything, depending on the extent of her powers…”

Snart held out his gun to Cisco matter-of-factly. “Then upgrade it.”

Eyes widening, Cisco looked from the weapon to Start and back again. He held his hands up in a gesture that was half-shrug, half-surrender. “Well, but I... oohhhh,” he interrupted himself as his eyes lit up with a sudden idea. “You might be right! Just need to enhance the core and then tweak the power output, and it might just be enough!”

Caitlin blinked, speechless as she searched for her words even as Cisco continued excitedly.

“We just --”

"Now hold on a minute there!” Joe barked as he strode through the doorway and over to join the others. “Nobody's shooting anybody. Geez, I leave you people alone for five minutes and you’re already plotting murder.”

“Uh, I wasn’t plotting anything,” Caitlin objected.

Cisco cracked a grin at the detective, although the nervousness was evident in his voice. “Psht. I… I was just thinking hypothetically. You know I’d never actually kill someone.”

“Ha,” Snart smirked. “You're all so cute.”

“He definitely would though,” Cisco added, pointing over his shoulder at Snart.

Joe closed his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh. “Guys, come on,” he said. “We’ve got to figure this out. Barry’s out there somewhere, in who knows what kind of trouble. He needs us! We can’t just abandon him to whatever this crazy metahuman has planned.”

The trio exchanged glances, although only Caitlin and Cisco looked guilty. Snart just looked amused.

“You’re right,” Caitlin said, “of course. We’re just all worried about Barry.” She shot a sidelong glance at Snart. “Well, Cisco and I are.”

Snart laughed. “You do realize the only reason I’m helping with this is because no one robs me of my haul and gets away with it?”

“You do realize that you just said that to a police detective?” Joe shot back.

“Touche.” Snart tilted his head in acknowledgment.

Joe frowned. “For Barry’s sake, I’ll forget you said that.”

* * *

“You know,” Barry was saying, “there are other things you could be doing with your powers than robbing people.”

“Oh, you’re going to tell me I can do some good?” she asked, smirking. “I really don’t think I can. Who’s going to need help from someone who can put you to sleep with a wave of her fingers?”

“Well --”

She sighed. “And don’t say I could help insomniacs. Trust me; therapists don’t help at all. I should know; I tried getting one to help me out when I couldn’t sleep. In fact, I was right here that night.” She stretched her arms out to either side, gesturing at the room around her.

Barry glanced around them. The room had definitely seen better days, but it had probably been quite cozy when it was kept up. He looked back to his captor questioningly. “What is this place?”

“My therapist’s office,” she explained with a half-shrug. Then her eyes twinkled with mirth. “Ha! The Flash in the therapist’s office with the Bandit!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Barry frowned. “What is this, the worst game of Clue ever?”

She giggled at that. “Oh, Pudding, I don’t know where you come up with these things. Your brain is fantastic.”

That was a new one. No one had ever complimented his brain before, Barry was pretty certain. Or if they had, they most certainly had not done it in such an outright, disturbing fashion.

“Anyway, the night there was that explosion at the lab in town, I was here, trying to get help. And apparently I got what I needed! I don’t get tired ever anymore.” She smiled happily.

Barry cleared his throat. “So you steal other people’s sleep, is that how it works?”

“I guess so,” she shrugged. “Want to see how it works?” Her tone was gleeful, as if she was a child showing off a new toy. Before Barry could respond, she raised a hand, palm up, and curled her fingers in one by one, in quick succession. What almost looked like a mist began to gather around her hand as her face lit up in pleasure.

Although he wanted to watch exactly what was happening, Barry’s eyelids began to droop after just a few seconds. He was sound asleep before his chin hit his chest.

* * *

“This has got to be the dumbest idea ever,” Joe said dubiously, eyeing the cold gun as Cisco handed it back to Snart.

Cisco was not to be deterred from his excitement. “Oh come on. Give me some credit! I just modified a really cool gun -- uh, no pun intended -- to be even cooler in like, half an hour.”

“Still think it’s a dumb idea,” Joe replied with a shake of his head.

“Lighten up, Detective,” Snart said, examining the gun. “After all, this was partly your idea.”

Joe sighed. “Only because we don’t have much of a choice right now. As much as I hate to say it, that gun might be the only thing that’ll help us get Barry back.”

“So, let’s go over the plan one last time,” Caitlin said from her chair by the computers. “Barry’s radio is still out -- apparently the damage from the cold gun was too severe. But we were able to reactivate his tracker, even though it’s not functioning at full capacity. That means we know his general area -- this old office building near the outskirts of town -- but not his precise location. You’ll have to look around once you get there, but at least you have a starting point.”

“And using my gun, we can then take her out,” Snart finished.

“...Ah, well, more like you shoot her on the new setting,” Caitlin corrected. “Hopefully that will be enough to shock her body back into a normal state of being and wake her up.”

Snart made a face. “My plan is easier.”

“Nobody's killing anybody!” Joe cut in, pointing a finger at Snart. “We take her alive, okay?”

“No promises,” Snart shrugged. “I’m certainly not giving her a chance to best me again.”

“Well, maybe these will help,” Harry cut in, coming back into the room carrying what looked like two metal hats. “I cobbled a little something together while Cisco was working on the gun.” He passed one to Joe and one to Snart as he walked past each of the men, then he stopped by Caitlin and turned around, rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. “They should help you out on your mission tonight.”

Regarding the item in his hands dubiously, Joe looked from it to Harry and back again. “And what is this, exactly?”

“Oh, a, uh, a neural, uh -- Look, whatever,” Harry stammered. “You just put it on, and she can’t affect you.”

“Well I feel stupid,” Snart said, looking upwards at where he had perched the hat on his head. “You couldn’t have made it look any more rudimentary?”

Harry made a face. “I only had half an hour, okay? Not really enough time to focus on aesthetics.”

Taking the that off and examining it front and back, Snart continued, “Are you sure this thing will even work? Or am I going to look ridiculous for nothing?”

Donning his own hat, Joe shrugged. “Fine; don’t wear it. That works too. Maybe it’ll keep you out of the way when she puts you to sleep.”

The car ride with Snart to the Bandit’s lair was just as bad as the car ride with Cisco to the jewelry store had been. If it hadn’t been for the fact that their plan sort of hinged on Snart’s participation, Joe might not have shown quite as much self control as he managed to exhibit. But somehow, they both made it to their destination in one piece -- albeit a more flustered piece, but one piece all the same.

When they arrived in the parking lot of the location where Caitlin had indicated the Bedtime Bandit had taken Barry, Joe slowed the car and coasted to a stop in one of the parking spaces.

Snart smirked. “We’re the only people here; I somehow doubt you need to obey some painted lines on the asphalt.” Then he caught the glare Joe was sending his way and cleared his throat. “Or you know, whatever,” he amended with a shrug.

“Let’s just go find Barry,” Joe sighed. He pocketed his keys and climbed out of the vehicle, taking the time to make sure his neural-whatever hat was in place before he glanced around at their surroundings.

The office building was empty and quiet, quite clearly having been abandoned for several years. Most of the windows were boarded over, although one or two had long since been broken, leaving gaping holes in the side of the otherwise dark structure. There were no other vehicles in the lot, and Joe turned slowly to take everything in.

“Are you sure this is the place?” he asked. “It doesn’t look like anyone else is here.”

Cisco’s voice came through the radio. “Yeah, no, that’s it. Barry’s tracker is right there; they’ve gotta be around somewhere.”

Hoisting his gun to his shoulder, Snart came up alongside Joe. “Okay then; we’ll take a look around. See what we can find.” He looked over at the detective. “Do you think the front door is unlocked?”

They started for the structure that loomed up nearby, but before they could get more than a few steps, a feminine voice rang out around them. “Oh good; more friends to play with!”

Whoever it was giggled, and Joe and Snart whirled towards the direction from which it was coming. They both spotted the woman at the same time; she was wearing the same pajama-esque outfit from earlier that day, and she was regarding them with a smile that could only be described as mischievous. Well, mischievous and creepy, Joe decided as she looked him up and down. When she turned to Snart, a look of surprise recognition crossed her face, then she laughed.

“Lenny!” she exclaimed happily. “It’s been too long, hasn’t it? I’m so glad to see you again!”

“Can’t say the feeling is mutual,” Snart shot back. “Now why don’t you give it up, Vicki? Return the Flash to us and you can go do whatever it is you’re doing nowadays.” He shrugged as Joe shot him a look. “Hey, whatever works, right?” he whispered.

She smiled patronizingly. “Aw, come on, Lenny. You know you missed me. I mean, you did come looking for me after all. Nobody does that for just anybody.”

“Cops do it for fugitives all the time,” Joe cut in. “Now I hate to interrupt this reunion, but I have a job to do. Turn yourself in and tell us where you have the Flash,” he called to the Bandit, “and it’ll all go a lot easier for you.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” she pouted. “Why don’t we all play instead?” And with that, she raised her hand and curled her fingers into a fist, just as Joe had observed on the security tapes from the robbery earlier that day.

Joe and Snart exchanged slightly worried looks, but a moment later, both were still standing.

The Bandit looked confused when nothing happened. “I don’t understand!” she wailed. “This has always worked!”

“Huh. Looks like your hats were a success, Harry,” Joe observed. “I’m slightly impressed.”

“Slightly?” Harry scoffed. “I’ll have you know I worked very hard on those things. I’d expect you to be more than slightly impressed.”

“I’d be more impressed if you had named them,” Snart muttered, rolling his eyes.

Seemingly frustrated at being unable to take down the two men, the Bandit suddenly turned on her heel and ran back through the front door of the office building. As soon as she had disappeared into the dark entrance, Joe and Snart started forwards, both with guns at the ready. They mounted the short flight of steps and cautiously stepped inside the building. After making sure the Bandit was not lying in wait for them inside the lobby, they paused and listened for some indication of in which direction she had gone.

The hollow sound of footsteps on tile echoed from the top of the staircase that rose up to their right, and both turned wordlessly in that direction. Moments later, they had mounted the stairs. The hallway just ahead of them opened up into what appeared to have once been a waiting area, with several offices around its perimeter. There was a dim light coming from one of the doorways, and Joe and Snart headed for it. They had just stepped past the threshold when they were blindsided by a faceful of cotton and feathers.

Snart swore as he swiped the offending object aside.

“Did your girlfriend just throw a pillow at us?” Joe asked. He’d seen a lot of strange things, but somehow this still took the cake.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Snart snapped. “And this is a perfect example of why.”

“Now, Lenny, that hurts my feelings!” came the Bandit’s eerie voice from the shadows. “Though I guess I have the Flash now, so it’s okay. He’s more fun than you are.”

“Where is he, Vicki?” Snart called back. “Come on; give him up. Detective West here might go easier on you if you just give us the Flash now.”

In response, another pillow came flying at them from across the room. Both men ducked, and then Snart pointed his cold gun in the direction from which the projectile had come. A moment later, the Bandit peeked out from behind the bookshelf where she had been concealing herself. As soon as she was in view, Snart fired, and the gun’s blast threw her backwards. The two men exchanged a glance, then they quickly crossed the room. There was a small doorway that opened up in the wall just beyond where the Bandit was slumped back against the bookcase. Joe paused to check her pulse while Snart stepped into the adjoining room to check for Barry.

There was a chair sitting in the center of the room, and slumped in it was Barry’s red-clad form. Snart slung his gun over his shoulder and hurried over to free the younger man. Barry’s head was on his chest, and he was snoring softly.

Snart chuckled as he patted Barry’s cheek. “Come on, Barry. Wakey wakey.”

“Mmm,” Barry mumbled, his eyelids fluttering. He slowly blinked at Snart as the other man finished undoing the ropes around his wrists and ankles. “What… what happened? Snart?” he frowned.

“Good, you’re back.” Snart put his hands on his knees and straightened up. “You took a little trip to dreamland is all.”

“The Bedtime Bandit!” Barry exclaimed, starting to stand but then wobbling uncertainly. “Uh, whoa…”

“She takes your energy; you’ll be fine in a few minutes,” Snart told him. “And don’t worry; I did your job for you this time.” He grinned cockily. “And I did a pretty good job of it too.” And then he nearly tripped over a figure lying on the carpet just outside of the doorway, and Snart grimaced. “Well, I _did_.”

“Joe!” Barry dropped to his knees, breathing a sigh of relief when his fingers found a pulse.

“Huh. Guess you didn’t upgrade it enough, Cisco,” Snart observed.

There was an offended sniff at that. “I only had, like, thirty minutes, thank you,” Cisco said. “I thought it would have worked!”

“Well apparently it didn’t,” Snart retorted. “And your hat didn’t do much good either, it would seem.”

Now it was Harry’s turn to snort. “Well their success is basically predicated on the fact that they’ll stay on your head while in use. They don’t work when your opponent is close enough to do something about them!”

Barry stood and looked around. “Where’d she go?” He started to speed up, planning to rush around the building and locate the Bandit in no time at all, but as soon as he did, he paused and put a hand to his head. “Oh, whoa…” he said again.

“You okay?” Snart asked, raising an eyebrow as he took in the exhausted look on Barry’s face.

“Yeah… I think so…”

“If she put him to sleep,” Caitlin spoke up, “then depending on how much energy she took from him, it might take a few minutes for his body to recover. Even for a speedster, it was probably quite a shock to his system.”

“Perfect,” Snart sounded less than pleased with the entire situation. Then his attention was distracted by something on the ground in front of him. “Apparently she’s thawed.” He pointed to a trail of wet footprints leading down the hall. “Because I was so concerned that this wasn’t going to get any worse.”

“Okay, so we can follow her that way,” Barry nodded optimistically.

“Uh, one thing we might need,” Snart spoke up, hurrying after him. “How do we stop her once we catch up to her? Since apparently just shooting her is no good,” he added.

Barry tilted his head in thought. “Still working on that one.”

Just as Snart started to reply, they rounded the corner into the waiting area through which Snart and Joe had passed just minutes before. There was a large bay window at the rear of the room, just behind a dusty sofa, and the Bandit stood staring out of it. Barry put up a hand and both men paused.

Then Snart started forward slowly. “Vicki? Stop making this harder than it has to be. Just turn yourself in.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk, Lenny.” She sounded tired. “Turn myself in? Ha! I don’t need to do anything of the kind; in a few minutes, I’ll be out of here anyways. You can’t stop me! I control this dream!” She laughed, and this time it was more maniacal than it had been before.

Barry and Snart exchanged a look before Snart took several steps forwards towards the window and the Bandit.

She turned around, catching him in mid-stride, and raised an eyebrow as she took in his position. “What are you going to do? Tackle me? Take me in by force?” She spread her arms. “I told you, I control all of this!”

And then everything happened in the blink of an eye. The Bedtime Bandit raised a hand, palm up, and grinned menacingly at the others. Snart dropped his shoulder and rushed her, executing an almost perfect football tackle -- or it would have been, if she had not started to jump out of the way as he came at her. Somehow, in the blink of chaos, the Bandit was thrown backwards, and she crashed through the large pane of cloudy glass behind her.

“Vicki!” Snart grabbed for her, but it was too late. She was already hurtling towards the ground outside with a shrill scream rending the air.

There was a blur of red, and Barry was gone, down the hall and down the staircase, speeding for the front door, heading for the side of the building where the Bandit would be crashing down in just seconds, desperately hoping he would be in time to catch her at the bottom. The Bandit was almost at the ground when Barry zipped around the corner and snatched her out of the air. He slowed down as he grabbed her, coming to a stop and placing her gently on her feet. Then he leaned over, panting, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“Whew!” he gasped. “Okay, I’m gonna need to eat like, ten pizzas once I get back.”

“How can anyone eat ten pizzas?” a shaky voice asked. It was the Bandit, though she was looking more confused and considerably less manic than she had a moment ago. She was frowning at Barry. “You look familiar,” she mumbled, pointing a finger at him. “Do I know you? Did we date or something once?”

Barry chuckled nervously. “No, no, definitely not. But I think you might know a friend of mine. Snart?”

A grimacing face leaned obligingly out of the window above them. “Hey, Vicki! Long time, no see.”

“Lenny? Didn’t I dump you?”

“Yeah, yeah. Three years ago. Ancient history.” He waved her question off. “Here, let me grab Detective West, and I’ll meet you guys down there.”

* * *

“So she didn’t actually know what she was doing?” Cisco asked, his brow wrinkling in confusion. He snagged a slice of one of Barry’s pizzas and kicked his feet up on the table in front of him. “She was just dreaming?”

Caitlin nodded. “Basically. When the accelerator exploded, she was trapped in a sort of waking dream-state, and she was able to steal other people’s energy to keep herself going.”

“Except when she fell out of the window, it jarred her out of that state,” Harry chimed in. “Like how when you’re dreaming, the sensation of falling causes your mind to wake up in self-preservation.”

Snart smirked at that. “If I had only known, I’d have thrown her out of a window a long time ago.”

“We’ll have to keep an eye on her for a little while, just to make sure that she doesn’t relapse,” Caitlin added. “But hopefully now that you guys woke her up, she won’t have to worry about her powers any more.”

“So,” Barry spoke up around a mouthful of pizza, “what happens to her now? I mean, since she didn’t really know she was breaking the law?”

“She’s still going to have to answer for what she did,” Joe replied, “but considering the circumstances, I think that we’ll be able to get her off with community service. It helps that she didn’t actually hurt anyone.”

“Now, how come you guys never offered me that same deal?”

Joe raised an eyebrow at Snart. “I’m letting you walk out of here today, aren’t I? Don’t push your luck.”

Snart looked like he wanted to argue, but Caitlin shook her head. “If I were you, I’d just eat my pizza,” she suggested.

“You mean _my_ pizza,” Barry complained jestingly. “I always have to order extra because no one can leave it alone.”

“Dude, you order like, a dozen pizzas. If the rest of us want to have one or two slices, you can’t really blame us.” Cisco looked offended at the implication. “Besides, if it’s going to be a S.T.A.R. Labs expense, all of us should get some of it.”

As the friendly banter started flying, Snart climbed to his feet. “Well, it’s been fun, guys,” he said, loudly enough to be heard over their racket. “Fortunately, though, I have bigger and better things awaiting me than this little team-building session. I’ll catch up with you later -- it’s not like you’ll ever catch up with me,” he added with a smirk.

He turned for the door, then paused as Barry called his name. Turning, he saw the others watching him. Barry was holding out an open box of pizza. “Why don’t you take a piece for the road?” he offered. “After all, I do owe you one.”

“This doesn’t make us friends,” Snart said, accepting the offered slice before turning to leave again.

Barry smiled. “Of course not,” he replied with a knowing grin.

None of the team could see Snart’s face as he left, but if they had, they would have caught the smile flickering at the corners of his mouth before he took a bite of pizza and stepped through the door.

Cisco watched him go. “So… since he didn’t take the whole box, can I have the rest?”

**Author's Note:**

> This whole thing -- all 7,800 words and change of it -- happened because of an off-handed text exchange back in November. We have kept it secret, I like to think successfully, for almost two months. I give DG a good 97% of the credit for getting it done. (Not true! -DG)
> 
> Yes, there’s something wrong with us. 
> 
> Merry Christmas to the ACTUAL (well, not literal actual) Bedtime Bandit, for whom this was written. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
> 
> Standard disclaimer applies.


End file.
